Louisiana U.S. House District Boundaries for 2024 Finally Settled

Posted on by May 15, 2024

On May 15, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order in Robinson v Callais, 23A994. It says the Louisiana legislature’s latest law (passed in April 2024) on the boundaries of 2024 U.S. House districts can take effect. The original redistricting plan had been held to violate the Voting Rights Act. The legislature’s new plan changed the district boundaries to provide two, not one, majority-black districts.

After the legislature’s second plan had been enacted, opponents of that play won a stay from a U.S. District Court against those new districts, on the grounds that the new districts emphasize race too much. But the district court’s latest decision is now stayed. Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a short order, saying the Purcell Principle determines the matter, at least for the 2024 election. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, writing here that the Purcell Principle (which says federal courts shouldn’t make last-minute election law changes) does not apply, because the election is almost six months away. Louisiana doesn’t have congressional primaries; it just has elections, held in November for congress. If no one gets a majority, there is a run-off in December.

Comments

Louisiana U.S. House District Boundaries for 2024 Finally Settled — 30 Comments

  1. A unanimous SCOTUS ruling – you don’t get many of those anymore.

    Why call Louisiana settling U.S. House District Boundaries for 2024 “finally”, while simultaneously pretending the Ohio certification deadlines are “unreasonably early” and “harmful to voters”?

  3. I don’t know. Nominally, he is/was a libertarian. I find myself disagreeing with his idea of libertarianism quite often. But at the same time, the guy is 80 years old and still running BAN, posting daily, interacting with distinctly millennial and zoomer comments. I gotta respect him for that. Wouldn’t catch me having such patience at that age.

  4. I agree with Justice Jackson. The Purcell Principle should not have been used in the Louisiana case. In fact the whole Purcell Principle is utterly arbitrary. It didn’t come from a full opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court. It came off the “shadow docket” with very little briefing and no oral argument. And it is ridiculous to say it applies to federal court activity but not state court activity. If last-minute changes to election procedures are bad for voters, then it ought to apply to both federal court actions and state court actions.

    Also today’s Louisiana decision is not unanimous. Three justices dissented, the three appointed by Democratic presidents.

    As to why the Ohio deadline is harmful to voters, it is obvious that forcing perhaps 45% of the voters to cast a write-in vote for Biden is harmful. Some voters have trouble casting a write-in vote. Some have physical disabilities. Others have terrible penmanship. It also harms election officials; it is very expensive for the vote-counting process to handle write-in votes.

  5. Case in point about disagreeing with mister Winger.

    “Three justices dissented, the three appointed by Democratic presidents.”

    Kagan and Sotomeier were appointed by an illegible. Kentucky Fried Jaxon was appointed by an unelected. No legitimate supreme court justice dissented. Hence it was a unanimous SCOTUS ruling.

    “it is obvious that forcing perhaps 45% of the voters to cast a write-in vote for Biden is harmful.”

    The Ohio Democratic Party could easily have avoided the write-in requirement simply by filing their paperwork on time instead of acting as if they are above the law simply because they know they will never be held accountable.

  8. Again, I don’t know about that. But regardless, I have respect for what all Winger puts up with on here.
    However, the fact is that Biden won 124 out of the 127 delegates in the Ohio primary way back on March 19th. They aren’t going to nominate someone else, unless he suddenly kicks the bucket tomorrow or something. So why can’t they just certify his nomination on time? What is this arrogant game they are playing? And how on Earth is it supposed to benefit voters?

  9. MORE CRACKED/PACKED GERRYMANDER DISTRICTS.

    TOTAL VOTES / TOTAL MEMBERS = EQUAL VOTES TO ELECT — IF EACH MEMBER HAS ONE VOTE IN LEGISLATIVE BODY.
    —
    Nuña — USA IS IN DE FACTO CIVIL WAR II MODE —-

    EVERY LEGIS / EXEC / JUDIC ACT HELPS COMMIE OR FASCISTS.

    SEE SPAIN 1931-1936 — LEADUP TO 1936-1939 SPANISH CIVIL WAR.
    —

    PURCELL – UNCONST — NO USA ELECTION DATES/DEADLINES IN USA CONST — JUST TERMS OF OFFICE.

    FAILURE TO HAVE AUTOMATIC REDO OF UNCONST ELECTIONS — AT THE EXPENSE OF GOVT DEFENDANTS

  10. Richard Winger is a legend. The foremost expert on ballot access.
    People come to him.
    A little respect is in order. This is what is wrong with today’s society of haters.

  11. One of the reasons I am a Libertarian is that I have seen how government power over ballots encroaches on basic freedom to vote. I think most readers know that before the 1892 presidential election there were no government ballots in presidential elections, in the US. We didn’t need some state law telling parties their deadline to certify their nominees, because parties didn’t certify their nominees to the government. Ballots were private and government had nothing to do with producing them. It is none of Ohio’s business to tell the Democratic Party when to hold its presidential convention. Ohio is encroaching on freedom of an organization to run its own affairs, for no good purpose.

  15. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-judge-biden-justice-department-090002653.html

    A ‘mean-spirited’ Texas map goes before a conservative appeals court that could make it a new standard
    Tierney Sneed, CNN
    Tue, May 14, 2024 at 2:17 PM EDT

    Conservative judges on the federal appeals court that oversees a large swath of the South questioned a longstanding legal mandate in the circuit that allows multiple minority groups to join together to seek representation under the Voting Rights Act.

    Judge Edith Jones of the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said that if it was “obvious” the Voting Rights Act contemplated so-called coalition districts that aim to bolster minority voting power, the Supreme Court would have said so in previous rulings about the law.

    “But it isn’t,” she told Justice Department attorney Nicolas Riley, who is defending the current precedent and how it was used by a Donald Trump-appointed judge to strike down the county commission map of Galveston, Texas.
    —
    TX COUNTY – MORE 1965 VRA JUNK

  20. It’s even better than privately printed ballots or the all write in federal ballot.

  23. One evening elections. No runoffs. Plurality wins. Vote by party. Standing count.

  24. Winning party picks officeholders.

    Only men vote. No women, children, or pets. Natural born citizen property owners only. Must be veterans. Grandfather clause, literacy test, pay poll tax, and must be married head of household with children.

  25. ERROR ERROR ERROR

    I HAVE PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION AND WILL BE SHUT DOWN

  26. @Richard Winger
    That is (in my opinion, of course) a valid argument against having any certification, but not an valid argument for having late certification deadlines as opposed to early ones.

    Many things have changed surrounding the election process. And unless every other rule introduced along the way is also repealed (which I would certainly be in favor of!), legislation requiring suitably early candidate certification and barring the nomination of those who did not appear on the primary ballot, is in the best interest of the electorate, because it guarantees sufficient time for voters to research candidates and for candidates to be held up to intense public scrutiny.

  29. @RW,

    What do you think of the 1904 Texas system. Each party printed its own ballots, but to standards set by the government. A voter would be given all ballots, which they would take into a voting booth and vote one, and discard the others (similar to the pick a party primary in Montana).

    Each office would have the party nominee and a write-in space.

    So you might take a Republican ballot and vote for Trump, or write-in Biden, West, or whomever.

    For each office

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